Peru – again

Cajamarca

Cajamarca is maybe most famous for a very important event in Peruvean history. It is the place where the last Inca emperor Atahualpa was captured by the Spanish and excecuted, thereby basically finishing the Inca empire and starting centuries of slavery for the indiginous population. The story is this: Atahualpa had in 1532 just won the civil war to his brother and was returning to the capital Cusco with his army when he heard that strangers had landed and were waiting for a meeting with him in Cajamarca. He went there to meet them. He rested in the baños del Inca, 6 km out of town, with his army of 40.000 soldiers. The only 140 Spanish were setting a trap. When the Inca entered the town the next morning with 5.000 unarmed men, the Spanish, under leadership of Pizarro, ambushed them, killing almost all the indians and taking Atahualpa captive.   

The only Inca building left in the city is the house in which Atahualpa was kept prisoner for his last 8 months. During this time he promised the Spaniards to fill the house with gold, because that was what they mostly desired, as high as his streched hand, in return he would be set free. The room was half filled with gold when they decided to finish him anyways. In the kinda museum where the house is, I witnessed the guided tour for school children. I was surprised to hear the guide realistically explain to the children the cruelty of the Spanish (Atahualpa himself was cruel himself too apparently, he had his half brother, who he defeated, killed). In all, the old empire is still very proudly present in todays Peruvean mind it seems. Here my Inca journey literally and symbolically ends.

      

Baños del Inca. In these hotsprings one can take a thermal bath, I took the Imperial bath and the hot swimming pool afterwards. One feels reborn. 

 

One Andean specialty is Guye, guinee pig (cavia in Dutch). It is eaten for thousands of years and I had never tried it before! So here in Caj I had my first Cuye and I can say it´s pretty terrible. Almost no meat nor taste and I spend all night on the toilet.

Outside Cajamarca are some interesting pre Inca archeological sites. Here is an old culture that practised a ´water cultus´, and made a 9 km canal to provide the valley with water. The aquaduct is from 1500 BC.

  

Most houses in the countrysice are made of mud stones. Here they make and dry some.

Peru´s national dish is ceviche, raw fish cooked in lemon juice. This is the tastiest one Ive tried. A combination of raw and fried fish with some sweet potato, yummie!

 

Another night bus. Some are terrible but some are very nice. Here on a chair that goed down to 180 degrees. A bed basically. How many thousands of kilometers have I done by bus now? Its a quiz, the winner gets something, dont know yet what. 

 

Arequipa

Arequipa, the pearl of the south. It’s a very pretty city full of colonial architecture and and an old women convent. Its a town in a town totally where women devoted their lives to Christ, same as in Potosi. Although this one is way bigger and prettier with very cool architecture that changed through the centuries, Unesco World heritage. Only in 1971 the first visitors were allowed to go inside, after 370 years of isolation!